USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Lectures on the history of the First Church in Cambridge > Part 4
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" The Lord to mee a Shepheard is, want therefore shall not I.
Her in the folds of tender-grasse, doth cause mee downe to lie : To waters calme me gently leads Restore my soule doth hee :
he doth in paths of righteousnes for his names sake lead mee."
It is pleasant to linger upon the customs of our fathers, but the sands warn me that your patience must be run out. These glimpses will show something of the life that was once going on here where we are living. These usages seem strange, sometimes uncouth to us ; but if we had been born into them it would have been different. They may suit our taste now hardly better than the garments of our ancestors ; but they were fashionable and natural once. They must be estimated in their surroundings; judged in their relation to those who employed them. Yet it is good to think that if those sturdy men should enter this house to-day, they would find the same simplicity of worship which they left ; that the early ministers might resume their place and seem little strange in it. No institution binds us more closely to our past than our congrega- tional churches and modes of worship. In thinking of the ancient times, let us keep it in mind that the ruling spirits here were men, gentlemen, scholars ; not boors nor bigots. Newtown had her share of the choice wheat which came from the sifting of a whole nation. We see this in the names we have read to-night, and it will continually appear as we pursue this story. They were men determined in character, in opinion, in conduct. These New England colonists differed from those who
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had sought other places in that, contrary to the vain experiments of the preceding century, the women came with the men, and homes were established with all their security and influence. It is partly because we see so little of the home life, of the lighter side of the men, that they look to us austere. They had little time or taste for idle sport ; but they had comfort in a strange land, and found enjoyment in their rugged path.
It is the solid part of their character and work which has remained ; their graces and adornments have been lost. We see their face in repose, or in work, after the smile has passed away. But men smiled, children played; they were married and given in marriage ; and here and there the wilderness blossomed with the rose. We talk of amusements ; some may fancy those were dreary years which lacked the modern improvements for wast- ing time, and trifling with these years of trial. They might have done differently. The money they put into Harvard College would have furnished public sports for a small portion of the year. Would it have been better spent ? These men knew literature. Shakespeare died in 1616, and possibly some of these men had seen him face to face. Lord Bacon died in 1626. Our fathers stood close to them. They believed in learning and goodness. They had confidence in men who had studied, thought, wrought. They had confidence in such men as Thomas Shepard and Henry Dunster and Elijah Corlet and Samuel Green, for the conservators and promoters of intelligence and piety. King James passed the manor- house of Scrooby on one of his hunting days. He thought he should like to buy the place. Every Sab- bath, at that time, there gathered a company of plain men and women under that roof. They met to pray
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and worship God. Who has lived, - James, the royal hunter, or Brewster, the Separatist worshipper ? What is a royal palace beside Plymouth Rock ? Not the employ- ments of idleness and recklessness, but the pulpit, the school-room, the printing-press, were to make the state. They did make it. We should choose such men, and not others, to make a state again. There was spirit here and life, unrepressed, exuberant. The woods and streams offered recreation to the boys when their tasks were done. The girls had their quiet enjoyment in the safety of their homes, in the companionship of their best friends. Morality was abroad in the earth. "One may live there from year to year, and not see a drunkard, hear an oath, or meet a beggar," wrote the author of " New England's First Fruits." They built houses, churches, schools, colleges. They took pains to get good citizens and to keep them good. In this practical age, it should be some honor that they succeeded in their undertaking. The Congregational Church held the germ of the nation. The devotion, intelligence, religion of these Puritans have given us our glory, which must be preserved through the like virtues in these later days. We go back to them, and they are gathering in their rude meeting-house, they are bending over their Bible, they are bowing the knee at the mercy-seat of God. Behind them is their Father and ours. His is the wis- dom, his the might, his the success. For his right hand and arm, and the light of his countenance, gave pros- perity, because he had a favor unto them.
LECTURE III.
" THERE IS A RIVER, THE STREAMS WHEREOF SHALL MAKE GLAD THE CITY OF GOD, THE HOLY PLACE OF THE TABERNACLES OF THE MOST HIGH." - Psalm xlvi. 4.
T r THE two things in history which preserve the reign of James from contempt are the translation of the Bible and the settlement of America. And I can give no better illustration of the way in which history has been written in the past, than by saying that in the two great English histories of this reign the translation of the Bible is not so much as mentioned, and that Lingard does not give a word to the planting of America. Hume only squeezes out for it a wretched page." These remarks of a recent writer remind us how easy it is to overlook the grand glories of any time, the great causes which are moving quietly forward to the accomplish- ment of results which shall compel the notice and admiration of the world. That to a mind blinded or prejudiced, the large and small affairs of kings and courts, the changes in material and political interests, are likely to be more attractive, and seem more important, than the deep principles of religion and liberty, the unob- trusive movements which immediately concern the kingdom of God. It is a happy fact in our own national history, that it can never be dissevered from its sources, - from the fear of God, the regard for truth and purity, the determination to have a free church with a free worship. Our history can never be profane,
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secular. He who writes of the state writes of the
church. In idea, in the order of events, the State House is within the meeting-house. Men's motives and deeds are directly related to their religion. " It concerneth New England always to remember," said the venerable Higginson of Salem, "that they are originally a planta- tion religious, not a plantation of trade ..... If any man among us make religion as twelve and the world as thirteen, such an one hath not the spirit of a true New England man."
It is plain, therefore, why it is that he who attempts to follow out the life of our early churches, especially of one which, from its location and the character of its membership, was as influential as this whose narrative we are reading together, is continually led beyond the local church, and compelled to treat of affairs which move in larger circles. Matters of colonial politics, of the higher education, of missionary work, of ecclesias- tical government, come before us to-day, even in the brief period of our history which we are to survey .. For these to a large extent centred here, and from this place went forth an influence to be long and widely felt. The colonies flourished, passed on into an independent national existence, and have gained the foremost place among the nations. We are at no loss to find the cause of this stability and advancement. There has been a river, -the stream of piety, of devotion, of regard for religious liberty, of zeal for the greatest good of man,- there has been a river, the streams whereof have made glad the city of God. While we rejoice in the verdure and luxuriance which surround us, the streams have been found full of water, and have flowed for the en- richment of the land. We will not forget them. Shall
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we not deepen and widen their channels, that they may flow over our spreading domain, till the fruitfulness which gladdens us shall make the whole land rejoice ?
We have already witnessed the formation of this church and marked the installation of Thomas Shepard, its first minister. That was in 1636. Of the number of those who united in the church we can give only a conjecture. There were about sixty persons in Shepard's company. Our new church manual will give the names of fifty-seven persons who are presumed to have been members of the church during the first year. The original design of the company was to remain here for a time, while they could look about them and find a more favorable place in which to make their permanent set- tlement.
Their desire to tarry was furthered by the opportunity to purchase the buildings of Hooker's
company. But it was soon manifest to the majority that it was best to remain here permanently. They found ample means of subsistence ; they remembered that their lives were short, and that removals to new plantations were full of troubles ; and they prized the fellowship of the churches, a novelty and refreshment in the wilderness. Hence the church was organized. The hand of Providence is seen in bringing them hither at the very time when houses waited for them, and in keeping them here where their influence would be so widely felt.
Mr. Shepard, at the time of his installation, was thirty years old. He is described by a contemporary as a "weak, pale-complexioned man." He was a man of unusual talent, of liberal learning and deep piety. His own character had been matured in the trials and toils of his earlier life. He was well suited to the new labors
4
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to which he was called, and well fitted to enjoy the repose and freedom of the new world where he had sought a refuge and a work. We shall find this promise of the beginning abundantly fulfilled. His ministry began with sorrow in his own house. The health of his wife had been failing for some time. The exposure to which she was subjected, and the care of lier feeble and froward child, during the long, stormy voyage from England, exhausted her strength, and she soon passed into a consumption, and was taken from the world. But before her departure she had the satisfaction of seeing her husband settled in a safe place, of being herself received to membership in his church, and of having her child baptized. The account which Mr. Shepard gives of her admission to the church upon the day of its formation is one of the most touching passages in the annals of the time. After the public services of the day were ended, "we came," he says, "to her chamber, she being unable to come unto us. And because we feared that her end was not far off, we did solemnly ask her if she was desirous to be a member with us, which she expressing, and so entering into covenant with us, we thereupon all took her by the hand, and received her as became one with us, having had full trial and experi- ence of her faith and life before. At this time and by this means the Lord did not only show us the worth of this ordinance, but gave us a seal of his acceptance of us and of his presence with us that day ; for the Lord hereby filled her heart with such unspeakable joy and assurance of God's love, that she said to us she had enough; and we were afraid that her feeble body would have at that time sunk under the weight of her joy." " A fortnight after which," he writes in another place,
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" my deare wife Margaret dyed." She was " exceedingly cheered and comforted with the sense of God's love, which continued until her last gaspe," and with resigna- tion and hope she entered upon her rest. But though she died so early, she deserves to be held in high esteem. Wherever her husband is praised she shall be tenderly remembered. As we have seen, Mr. Shepard first met her in Yorkshire, at the house of Sir Richard Darley, where he served as chaplain. She was then Margaret Tauteville, the kinswoman of the knight. She be- friended the homesick, persecuted young man, in a strange house, in a family where he could expect little sympathy. The labors of Shepard there produced good results. He found favor and friends. "When the Lord had fitted a wife for me he then gave me her, who was a most sweet, humble woman, full of Christ, and a very discerning Christian ; a wife who was most incom- parably loving to me and every way amiable and holy, and endued with a very sweet spirit of prayer." The family consented to the alliance, and even enlarged the portion of the bride. " Thus did I marry the best and fittest woman in the world unto me." The marriage was in 1632. The wife was unwilling to remain at Buttercrambe, and they set out, not knowing where their home would be. They shared their fears and faced their enemies together. The hunted minister had a true helpmeet. She went with him through his perils and privations on the land and on the sea. Her faith and hope reached out to the land beyond the wide waters. It has already been given as one reason which moved him to come to New England, at the time he made the first attempt, that " my dear wife did much long to see me settled there in peace, and so put me on
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to it." Within a fortnight after the formation of the church she left him desolate. But her influence for the four years of her wedded life was marked. The distrust- ful, cautious man needed one who excelled him in courage and enterprise. Wise enough to appreciate her position and be content with it, she was able by her faith and her affection to incite him to bold purposes. She was given to him at the time when he needed her the most for the determining of his career, and when that work was done she had rest. But let her memory be honored. We delight to write the name of our first minister wherever we can. The society to which the church is united is called after him, and many of our works of benevolence have been done under his name. The granite column we have reared bears it to pos- terity. It will be on the mural tablet in our new sanctuary. It is well. Shall there not be found some conspicuous place on which we can gratefully inscribe " Margaret Shepard " ?
From this domestic life we pass among more exciting scenes. At the time of the organization of the church, trouble had already begun in connection with that rest- less and resolute woman whose name is " dismally conspicuous in the early history of New England." Mrs. Ann Hutchinson had been attracted from England by her desire to continue to enjoy the preaching of Mr. Cotton. Her husband, who had left a good estate in Lincolnshire, is described as " a man of a very mild temper and weak parts, and wholly guided by his wife." She was destined to encounter some who would be less submissive to her control. They came in the fall of 1634, and she soon showed herself a kind neighbor, especially to the sick, and won the esteem of the people,
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over whom her attentions and talents gave her influence. She became connected with the Boston Church, and soon avowed doctrines at variance with those commonly held here. Winthrop mentions two dangerous errors which she brought with her : "first, that the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person ; second, that no sanctification can help to evidence to us our justifica- tion. From these errors grew many branches." Her fundamental idea was, that a person is not to find evidence of his being a Christian in any changes in him- self, or any grace or holiness he may possess, or in the conditional promises made to such as believe, but in an immediate revelation made to his own soul. To receive this doctrine was to be under a "covenant of grace." To depend upon other evidence was to be under a " cov- enant of works." Under these two designations Chris- tians became divided. The party which she headed were known as " Familists," from a short-lived sect which sprang up in Leyden in the preceding century, and held that the essence of religion consists in the sense of Divine love. They were also called " Antinomians," which was likewise a borrowed name taken from a sect formed a hundred years before, which denied the obliga- tion to observe the law under the gospel dispensation.
Error is commonly some perversion of truth. We are, indeed, not under the law, but under grace ; yet grace has its law. "These things I command you," said our Saviour, Christ. His service is perfect freedom; but even in that " the love of Christ constraineth us." We are not freed from the obedience of the moral law ; but we are not left to the consequences of our neglect, seeing that the grace of Christ comes in to atone for our sin ; so that, hopelessly lost through our works, we are saved
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through his grace. We are, truly, not justified by works, and virtue is not proof of piety, manliness of godli- ness. Still, a man's works are a testimony to his character, and will always be held as witnesses to the sincerity of his profession. " By their fruits ye shall know them." The children of God have the witness in themselves, his Spirit working in their spirits, and the last witness to one's piety must be sought in his con- sciousness ; but consciousness will take account of his grace and growth and life. It will be fatal to our hope of salvation to rest upon that which we can do or that which we feel. It is the free choice of God which saves us ; his independent, sovereign working. Yet we are called upon to work out our own salvation, to behold the Lamb of God, to believe the gospel which is preached. " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." There is a beautiful harmony between the grace of God and the faith of man. Always will the Christian render the full praise of his redemption unto God, who loved the world and gave his Son. It will be the rejoicing of heaven."
To her imperfect, perverted views of great truths Mrs. Hutchinson attached great importance. Gathering weekly assemblies of women, she expounded her views and denounced the ministers, with the exception of her brother-in-law, Wheelwright, and Cotton, who seemed for a time to favor her, being impressed with her piety and ability, but afterwards came to see the false ground upon which she was standing. Her opinions spread with amazing rapidity. Dr. Albro has characterized them as " absurd, licentious, and destructive"; adding, " where- ever they took root they produced the bitter fruits of alienation, hatred, and slander." The ministers were
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openly ridiculed, and ignorant men and women were put forward as preachers, with the boast that they could excel the " black coats " who had been trained at the " Ninneversity." Churches and families became divided. Old friends were separated and made enemies. Many Christians wavered, uncertain with which party to side. All the associations of common life became infected with the disputes. Even the marching of troops, which had been raised to assist Connecticut against the Indians, was opposed on " the ground that the officers and soldiers were too much under a covenant of works." To under- stand how so great a commotion could come from so small a cause, it is only needful to remember how in- timately religious ideas were connected with all affairs. The churches, the clergy, the doctrines, were the most substantial interests of men. To question a man's or- thodoxy was to question his character. As well call him a knave outright as pronounce him under a " cov- enant of works." The dissension was really fearful. English congregations in Holland had fairly gone to pieces by falling upon similar contentions. There was the greatest peril that the colony would be wrecked in this war of the elements, among these frowning rocks. The churches and towns in the country, for the most part, were opposed to this troublesome woman. The church in Boston was in her favor, with the exception of a few members, among whom were the pastor, Wilson, and Winthrop, who in 1636 was deputy-governor under Vane, who was a partisan of Mrs. Hutchinson. A meet- ing of magistrates and elders was held to devise a way of quieting the disturbance. Wilson laid the blame where it belonged, for which he was reproved by his church. At length a fast was appointed on account of these and
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other troubles, but this evil was not put down. Wheel- wright and one Greensmith were reckoned with for their seditious language, and this enraged their friends and provoked resistance. Boston was in so great con- fusion that the General Court met here. An election was held on our Common, and Winthrop was chosen There were many fierce speeches and some governor.
threatening deeds. The venerable Wilson is said to have spoken from a tree into which he had climbed. Vane soon after returned to England, and one element of the strife was removed. There was warm discussion which tended towards a settlement. The real points of difference among the people were found to be small. The preaching of Mr. Shepard on the day of election contributed to this result. Matters seemed in so prom- ising condition, that the ministers, with the consent of the magistrates, called an ecclesiastical synod. It was composed of the ministers and messengers of all the churches, with a few who had recently arrived in the country. It was the first synod held in America, and it met with this church of ours. The General Court ad- journed on account of this convention. This was in 1637.
I must leave it to your imagination to reproduce that grave and reverend assembly which convened in the bumble meeting-house in Dunster Street. It is fitting to mark this beginning of such assemblies, and to con- nect it with our own church. It was not the last great and good thing which began here, as we shall have occasion to see. Mr. Shepard opened the first session with a " heavenly prayer." Mr. Hooker of Hartford and Mr. Bulkeley of Concord were the moderators. The sessions continued for three weeks, with freedom of
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speech, but with due regard for propriety and order. Eighty-two opinions were condemned with great una- nimity. The peculiar views of Mrs. Hutchinson and her adherents were among them. Certain questions of church discipline which had arisen were decided, and matters were carried on peaceably and " concluded comfortably in all love." Mr. Shepard says, "These errors, through the grace and power of Christ, were dis- covered, the defenders of them convinced and ashamed, the truth established, and the consciences of the saints settled, there being a most wonderful . presence of Christ's spirit in that assembly held at Cambridge." He mentions as one result of the synod the discomfiture of the Pequot Indians. For, as the internal dissensions flourished, wars from without had opportunity to arise, and these were quelled by the restoration of harmony among the people. It was found necessary to send away a very few persons who had been prominent in the disturbances. Mrs. Hutchinson herself was tried before the General Court, for railing at the ministers and continuing her lectures in defiance of the synod. A sentence of banishment was passed, but as it was winter she was committed to a private house in Rox- bury. Her conversation there was so offensive, that the church in Boston cited her to appear and answer to
the charge of holding gross errors. The result was her retraction of a part of her declaration, and an admonition by the church, inasmuch as she persisted in holding others. She was then allowed to be at Mr. Cotton's house, that he and Mr. Davenport might reason with her. She retracted all the opinions imputed to her, and went so far as to say she had never held them. A question of veracity was raised and decided against her,
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and she was excommunicated for having " impudently persisted in untruth." This was the end of her power and her party here. She was ordered by the governor to depart from this jurisdiction, which she did. Some of her adherents dispersed in different directions. It is not necessary to trace her fortunes farther. Her after- life was troubled and troublesome. She became a widow, and finally moved to a place within or near the Dutch border, where the whole family, except a daughter of eight years, were murdered by the Indians. Her stormy life had a stormy close. But after her departure from Massachusetts a long period of tran- quillity was enjoyed here.
Thus early were this church and its minister brought to contend earnestly for the faith, for the purity and quiet which they had sought in exile and privation. The prayers and thoughts and conversation of the people who walked our ancient streets, the preaching of the youthful but experienced minister, must have had large reference to the scenes we have been hurrying through. But Mr. Shepard gratefully acknowledges that this town "was kept spotless from the contagion of the opinions." A course of lectures which he preached during and after these times, based upon the Parable of the Ten Virgins, we are permitted to read, adding to their intrinsic interest by transferring them to the days which called them forth.
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